July 2009

There is nothing like spending the day on and in an active volcano. Kate and I were at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is a phenomenal experience. We hiked the Kiauea Iki trail, which first skirts around the rim and then through the floor of a crater full of steam vents. We ate lunch at the Volcano House which features a buffet and a view of the main Kilauea caldera. While Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world,  the Hawaii volcanoes have 'rift zones' underneath that allow the lava to flow out through side fissures and therefore they are not as explosive as Mt. St. Helens. The caldera is also not full of molten lava, but rather frozen lava. It does have the potential for various explosions, and one happened in the closed section of the park just yesterday. Luckily, there were no explosions to worry about today. So the only spot to see lava is actually by the ocean at the foot of the volcano. The painting below is at the end of the Chain of Craters road, and the plumes are where the lava is hitting the ocean from one of the underground lava tubes. The terrain I was standing on is hardened lava from flows between 1983 to 1999. So basically, the subject of this landscape painting is the newest landscape on the planet that one could paint.  "New Earth" Painted in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park 8x10 oil on lead primed linen